Not Motivated by Money

Money doesn’t motivate me much. It’s nice to have, and it’s nice to see when I make money from something that I’ve created. But, I don’t find it to be a strong source of motivation.

I think it’s because I’ve always had my needs fulfilled for my entire life. Of course, there were a few times when I worked for money, but it was more than that. I was exploring different career opportunities, trying to find what fulfilled me. I wasn’t 100% satisfied with teaching English in Korea, but there were certain aspects that I enjoyed, and that kept me going. Now, I would only teach under certain circumstances. I don’t think the money would make much of a difference.

I’ve been blogging every day just to give me something to do, and because for once, I was motivated to write days ago when I first started. It’d be nice if I made money from these posts, but I know my writing quality isn’t that great and I don’t know how to optimize my blog so that it can make money, so that’s not really my motivation. It’s more so to get my thoughts out.

I don’t know if I would be motivated by large amounts of money. Maybe. Like let’s say someone offered me a million dollars to go sky diving. Now, in the past, I would have said yes definitely because it would have been on my bucket list. But these days, I wouldn’t voluntarily go sky diving because I think I’d be too scared to enjoy it. If I had 100% guarantee.to receive a million dollars in exchange for sky diving, hmm… I’d still be pretty lazy to be honest. I’m thinking about whether it’s really worth it. Some people highly recommend the experience. Maybe I would. There’s still a chance I wouldn’t. It’s a toss up for me.

When it comes to doing something, I usually think of how easy it is for me to do it in return for the benefit of doing it. These days, I’ve been playing Monopoly on Pogo. I do it because it’s fun and easy to play, and I get some enjoyment from it. When I go for a walk sometimes in the evenings, I try to go a relatively easy path, and I only go for as long as I can. I don’t push myself to do more.

I don’t think it’s necessarily good or bad either way to be motivated by money or not. It just means you operate differently. I’m motivated by fun and excitement. I’m also motivated to do things that help me distract from dealing with hearing voices. I’ve always been motivated to do something fun, but I feel like it’s even more important to me these days. Or sometimes, I just want to do something that helps me remain calm and relaxed.

I guess when it comes down to it, I’m motivated by things that reward me intrinsically. I don’t care for awards or external praise. I like knowing that I achieved something myself. I like tracking my own progress. I like the good feelings that accomplishing something can bring.

These days, I don’t really have anything that I want to buy in particular. I want to move out eventually, but I’m not pressed for it. I had a few ideas of where I would like to live, but that’s always subject to change. It’s not a fixed decision. Maybe if I knew of an exact place I would want to live and how much it would cost, I might be more motivated to make the money. But since I don’t have a clear idea of anything I want in particular that costs money (or can already afford the things I want with the money I make), I guess that’s why money doesn’t really matter to me. I can already get the things that I want, so why make more?

That being said, I’m not opposed to making more money. If something I do happens to result in more money, that’s always nice. It’s just not a priority to me. I’m more about having a fulfilling experience.